'Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.' As the United States and Israel launched a major assault on Iran, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said on Saturday that Canada supports the attempt to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and urged Canadians in the country to shelter in place. “Canada supports the United...
The U.S. and Israel launched an attack Saturday on Iran, with the first apparent strike happening near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian media reported strikes nationwide, and smoke could be seen rising from the capital. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a video posted on social media that the U.S. had begun “major combat operations in...
As some Sikh Canadians, intelligence community members and Liberal MPs push back on the government official’s claim that India is no longer actively carrying out foreign interference, India’s High Commissioner to Canada insists it was “never” a problem in the first place. “It never happened,” Dinesh K. Patnaik told journalists about accusations of foreign interference multiple times on the sidelines...
Conservatives are capitalizing on the recent drop in public support for immigration, but risk being seen as too MAGA adjacent, say observers. Meanwhile, the immigration minister's own colleagues question her handling of the file.
Pierre Poilievre is getting generally pretty good reviews for his major speech yesterday outlining his vision for Canada-U.S. relations. Before a pretty Conservative business audience in Toronto, he also went after Donald Trump -- something he hasn't done in the past with so much vigour. It wasn't just what he said but the way he said it. Chantal Hebert and...
A comprehensive new Liaison Strategies survey reveals that a majority of Ontarians are dissatisfied with the provincial government’s performance across seven major policy areas, ranging from affordability to ethics. The survey found that the Ford government faces its most significant challenges in the areas of housing and the cost of living. Both files currently see a total disapproval rating of...
A new Liaison Strategies of Ontario reveals a tightening provincial race, with the Progressive Conservatives (PCs) and the Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) nearly neck-and-neck among decided and leaning voters. The PCs led by Doug Ford would garner 40% of the decided and leaning vote, followed closely by the Ontario Liberals at 36%. The Ontario NDP sits at 17%, with the Green Party at 5%.
Is it too late for Pierre Poilievre? The Conservative leader gave an impressive speech this past week to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto in which he laid out a Conservative strategy for dealing with the erratic and very anti-Canadian U.S President Donald Trump. “Canada cannot control the decisions of foreign presidents,” Poilievre said. “But we can control the...
I paid for my Sunday morning beers one at a time during the men’s gold medal Olympic game. I wanted to be able to walk out of the bar immediately if the Americans won the game, which is what I did as soon as Jack Hughes put the puck past Jordan Binnington. I was in a little bar in the...
As the Canadian government prepares to review the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) this summer — a deal the U.S. president is signalling he’s prepared to abandon — Japan’s ambassador is reminding Canada just how high the stakes are for a key component of Ontario’s economy.
Canada is asking some of its staff in Tel Aviv to relocate as Israel and the United States launched strikes on Iran early Saturday. “We have asked non-essential staff to relocate from Tel Aviv because of the heightened security situation,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who made the comments from Mumbai, India, just before news broke that Israel launched...
While the terrible tragedy at Tumbler Ridge prevented Prime Minister Mark Carney from attending this year’s Munich Security Conference, echoes of his recent Davos speech could be heard throughout the meeting halls, hallways, and bars of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. I was there again this year as a Canadian parliamentarian and Senate committee chair, so some of those conversations were...
Alberta might be landlocked but the province is sinking in a sea of red ink — and red faces. An embarrassed United Conservative government admits its new deficit-riddled budget unveiled Thursday breaks the province’s own law against running deficits — a law the UCP introduced in 2023 when the government was flooded with oil-generated revenue and buoyed by an $11.6 billion surplus.
The premier defector from, and debunker of, the “Green Terror,” which holds that climate change is an existential challenge to the continuation of life on earth, is probably Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute. He has been a prominent climate change skeptic for years, and has roiled the...
There will be no Ceausescu moment, no “at long last sir have you no decency” turning point, no dramatic climax in which the tyrant’s power suddenly evaporates: That instantaneous, simultaneous crystallizing of long-inchoate doubts, wherein those who feared him lose their fear, and those who believed in him lose their faith. Life rarely supplies the needs of narrative, and if...
What happens when Canada needs bold action but the global figure most closely associated with political radicalism is the man Canadians hate the most in the entire world? Welcome to the conundrum facing Pierre Poilievre and Canada’s Conservatives. Lots of lights on Canada’s national dashboard are blinking red, but the country is fearful of the kind of radical disruption represented...
Donald Trump spent nearly two hours this week proclaiming that everything is going great for the United States under his watch. In this same week, the president is getting a united rebuttal from Canada — no, things are not that great on this front. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the latest to lay down that marker, and a strong one...
There were two speeches inside the speech on Canada-U.S. relations that Pierre Poilievre gave Thursday. One was intended to make him sound like a grown-up. The other was to make him sound different than Mark Carney. The first part was the kind of political repositioning that Mr. Poilievre has long needed.
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney often remarked that the two principal challenges facing any Canadian Prime Minister were national unity and managing relations with the United States. Mulroney excelled at both, which contributed significantly to his back-to-back majority election victories. Today, Prime Minister Mark Carney faces daunting challenges on both of these files and, so far, his prescriptions for success are...
Expect to hear a lot over the next few days about the delicate dance Mark Carney is supposedly attempting as he travels to India to promote trade amid lingering suspicion that India’s government is linked to violent crime in this country. It’ll be a bit like the delicate dance Carney was said to be engaging in last month when he...
Danielle Smith has a problem. Her government is heading toward a deficit projected, before Thursday’s budget, at $10-billion. This is only partly because it overestimated oil revenues, with oil prices now projected at roughly $5 to $10 a barrel lower than forecast in last year’s budget. It is because the government set spending at levels that could only be sustained...
I have a pretty high tolerance for political spin. You kind of have to when you’ve spent years in the House of Commons and on the ground here in Alberta. But a recent opinion column published right here on this platform claiming “moderates are fleeing” the Conservative Party crossed the line from standard spin straight into fiction. It’s a perfect...
For the past two years, much of his rhetoric has revolved around the idea that Canada is broken. That elites have failed. That gatekeepers have blocked growth and made life unaffordable. It has been sharp and oppositional, sometimes deliberately so. This speech was different. It felt calmer and more reflective. He reached back to Marcus Aurelius and the founding of...
The NDP should have a singular focus for the short- and medium-term: finding a way back to official party status. Everything else can come later. In fact, everything else will only come later if the NDP is once again a party with at least 12 seats in the House of Commons. That official party status will unlock desperately needed funds...
You might not remember the days when then-prime minister Justin Trudeau went to India to reset relations, but if you close your eyes, you might just be able to conjure an image of Mr. Trudeau in Bollywood outfits. That was in 2018. Mr. Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, announced free-trade talks with India’s prime minister in 2010. They never came close...
Prime Minister Carney is headed to India, Australia, and Japan as part of Canada’s ongoing efforts to shore up trade. While Australia and Japan are uncontroversial trading partners, Canada’s relationship to India is more problematic. Carney’s entire trip occurs against an alarming backdrop: rampant extortion in Canada; a guilty plea in a murder-for-hire plot in the US that once again...
To begin his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Donald Trump looked subdued. Maybe he’d seen the NPR report earlier in the day saying his Justice Department was hiding files in the Jeffrey Epstein case that potentially incriminated him. If true, it would be a cover-up story of Watergate magnitude. But soon, Mr. Trump’s bravado was back, and it...
In a performance that clocked in at just under two hours on Tuesday night, Donald Trump turned the State of the Union address into an awards show — “You get a medal!”, “You get a medal!”…he even bemoaned not being able to award himself the Medal of Honor. Those who only read the transcript may miss the point that this...
If the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it, Prime Minister Mark Carney might consider visiting the Governor General in the coming weeks and asking her to dissolve Parliament. The latest polls are starting to show a seductive spread in his favour — both in the horse race, and as far as whom Canadians consider...
The only person who could realistically benefit from Doug Ford’s appearance on CNN on Monday is Doug Ford himself. Ontario’s Premier decided to insert himself once again in the middle of international trade negotiations, an area he has no jurisdiction over, by appearing on American television.
There was a trigger warning included in the written decision handed down by B.C.’s Human Rights Tribunal last week. A caution – just in case someone was browsing the web, looking for tiramisu recipes or articles on the Northern Cricket Frog or something, and accidentally stumbled on the case of former Chilliwack, B.C., school board trustee, Barry Neufeld, who was...
A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Tumbler Ridge shooter sent messages about gun violence to OpenAI’s ChatGPT over the course of several days last June. The posts were flagged by OpenAI’s automated review system and roughly a dozen employees debated whether the posts indicated the possibility of real world violence. Ultimately, however, OpenAI leadership decided...
Canada’s new Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sends a clear signal that defence capability, economic security, and industrial capacity are inseparable. Investment will deliver tangible outcomes: a stronger domestic industry, sovereign capability, and cooperation with allies. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the first Canadian Defence Industrial Strategy at our CAE headquarters in Montreal. This marks an important first step...
Light is being cast on two measures the Liberal government hoped to pass with little scrutiny this week but public outcry many not be loud enough for Prime Minister Mark Carney to change course. The first is on the extraordinary powers the Star first raised concerns about back in December. Hidden in the government’s 600-page budget bill is a measure...
Had Pierre Poilievre had won the last election, he would not have gone to Davos to address the World Economic Forum, as Mark Carney now famously did — to Donald Trump’s scorn and world acclaim. The Conservative leader has promised for years to steer well clear of the annual gathering in Switzerland, and committed once again in the 2025 campaign...
This week, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre released a video about the preferential treatment of asylum seekers in Canada. In it, he states that six million Canadians can’t get access to a family doctor and specialist wait times average 30 weeks. Then, he drops the kicker: rejected asylum claimants, who have never paid taxes, get free “deluxe supplementary heath care” such...
ChatGPT developer banned Tumbler Ridge shooter's account but didn't flag it to police. Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon says OpenAI's recent commitments to adjust its policies in the wake of the shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., do not go far enough and plans to meet with CEO Sam Altman. "While we note their willingness to strengthen law enforcement referral protocols...
China's government announced Friday it would suspend some tariffs on Canadian agricultural goods and seafood following a recent visit by Prime Minister Mark Carney. The country's finance ministry said in a statement that 100 per cent tariffs on canola meal and peas, and a 25 per cent levy on lobsters and crabs, won't be imposed. The statement, which made no...
A former national security and intelligence adviser to the federal government says it "strains credibility" to suggest India has stopped harmful meddling in Canadian affairs. Vincent Rigby, who now teaches at McGill University, says Canada needs to strike a balance between poking India in the eye and pretending national security threats no longer exist as the countries try to rebuild...
President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. is in talks with Havana and raised the possibility of a "friendly takeover of Cuba" without offering any details on what he meant. Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for a trip to Texas, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders "at...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is planning his first official international trip as opposition leader next week, with plans to meet with parliamentary colleagues and business leaders in both London and Germany. The trip comes just after he outlined his vision for Canada's relationship with the United States, at a speech in Toronto on Thursday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in India on Friday to start a four-day visit hoping to continue the reset of the trade and diplomatic relationship he started last spring with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. But the issue of whether India is still engaged in the kind of foreign interference that led to a diplomatic crisis between the two countries...
A Conservative MP wants to identify federal public servants or members of the Canadian Armed Forces who sympathize with the left-wing antifa movement. Edmonton MP Garnett Genuis has asked federal departments and agencies, as well as the military, if any of their employees are now, or have ever been, members of the decentralized protest movement that stands in opposition to...
Conservative MP Jamil Jivani said that $8 million worth of Canadian aid to Cuba announced this week was sparked by a “moral panic” that is distracting the government from helping Canadians. “What more could we be doing for our own people?” said Jivani, in a post on X. “The way this is framed — so you don’t think about it...
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is sounding an optimistic note about the chances of reaching a deal soon to supply India with uranium as he landed in Mumbai Friday with Prime Minister Mark Carney to expand trade with the subcontinent. The Globe and Mail reported in November that Canada and India were putting the finishing touches on a 10-year deal worth...
Canada lags behind its international counterparts when it comes to trading with India, warned Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, whose province trades more with the country of 1.4 billion than any other province in Canada.
Prime Minister Mark Carney landed in India on Friday, where he will continue his government's ongoing efforts to reset a fractured diplomatic relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. Carney and Modi are each looking to decrease their countries' dependence on trade with the United States under President Donald Trump. "Both for India and for Canada, the big picture is...
India needs oil, natural gas and uranium — and fast, high commissioner says on eve of PM's visit. India wants to buy any energy product it can from Canada and its officials are urging the federal government to streamline approvals for various projects so it can tap into new supplies to feed a rapidly growing country with relatively few natural...
One day after senior government officials downplayed threats of foreign interference and transnational repression by India, one Liberal MP and members of the Sikh community are pushing back against that assessment. “I strongly condemn these remarks made by the government official because the claim is very disconnected from the reality the community is facing on the ground,” Liberal B.C. MP...
The once debt-free Alberta government projects three consecutive years of red ink and increased borrowing to fund critical public services.
Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he sees a path to renew the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and anticipates more specifics from the U.S. administration soon. Gearing up to head back to Washington, D.C. next week to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and “others” next week, LeBlanc said he’s “not pessimistic about renewing the trilateral framework.”...
The federal Liberals' Budget Implementation Act has passed a confidence vote in the House of Commons. Bill C-15 carried on division, meaning there was no recorded vote in Parliament.
Canada's new foreign influence watchdog says his mandate will include attempts by foreign agents to interfere at the provincial and municipal level across Canada, including any attempt on behalf of a foreign government to influence a referendum on Alberta separation.
The Bloc Quebecois' Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagne will once again face off against Liberal Tatiana Auguste in the Terrebonne riding after the Supreme Court recently invalidated last year's result. Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet announced his candidate today, paying tribute to Sinclair-Desgagne's relentless drive.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada needs to create more leverage in its negotiations with the United States, and argues that despite the ongoing trade war between the two countries, Canada should not substitute the U.S. with China. In a speech focused on becoming “stronger at home” to increase leverage abroad, Poilievre laid out his vision for Canada-U.S. relations in...
Conservative leader warns 'China is not a substitute for the United States.' In a speech laying out the details of how Canada should respond to the Trump administration, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre directly attacked U.S. President Donald Trump's trade and tariff policies, urging Canadians to focus on what they can control. Quoting Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, Poilievre said Canadians have...
American hockey player Brady Tkachuk said Thursday that he did not appreciate a doctored TikTok video shared by the White House that made it look like he was disparaging Canadians after winning Olympic gold, calling it fake and something he would never say. The video includes fabricated audio of Tkachuk referring to Canadians as "maple syrup eating f---s," with the...
A former Liberal cabinet minister and prominent Sikh-Canadian is calling for Prime Minister Mark Carney to urge for the extradition of Indian officials in relation to the 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In an interview with The Hill Times, Herb Dhaliwal said he hopes the first item on Carney’s (Nepean, Ont.) agenda in India is “the full...
In a wide-ranging speech, the Conservative leader set out important markers for the kind of co-operation he is willing to offer to the Liberal government. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says U.S. President Donald Trump is “wrong” to attack Canada on trade and security, and is offering to work “constructively” with Prime Minister Mark Carney to advance Canadian interests. In a...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre laid out his vision for the Canada-U.S. relationship on Thursday, directly denouncing U.S. President Donald Trump's rhetoric about Canada while insisting on a stable relationship with our southern neighbour. "The lesson in this moment is simple: the path to sovereignty is focusing relentlessly on what is within our power," Poilievre said in a speech at the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are beginning to prepare for the next election. The Liberal Party unveiled its rules for selecting candidates on Wednesday and said it will begin the process of nominating people in ridings held by other parties in the coming days. The preparations follow two recent polls suggesting the party is widening its lead over the Conservatives...
Official says violence by Indian agents in Canada has 'not continued,' and a trade deal is coming together. Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to India Thursday for what officials in both countries describe as a potentially history-making trip — one meant to put years of frosty relations aside and lay the groundwork for a comprehensive trade deal. Foreign Affairs...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney gets set for his second circumnavigation of the globe in as many months, his chief political opponent will also head overseas, Global News has learned.
It's budget day in Alberta, and the overarching question is not whether the budget will show a deficit, but exactly how many billions of dollars in the red it will be. Premier Danielle Smith has signalled for weeks that the deficit is going to be, in her words, "significant" but has not provided a dollar figure. She says the main...
Canada and South Korea have signed a new defence agreement, roughly a month after Prime Minister Mark Carney urged middle powers to band together in the face of "great power" economic coercion. Following negotiations that concluded in October, the two countries signed a deal Wednesday related to the exchange and protection of classified military and defence information. In October, Ottawa...
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) -- Gathered at a resort in suburban Virginia, House Democrats this week were acting like a party on the verge of reclaiming power as they drafted policy blueprints and spoke confidently about election victories in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley has seen the political ground shift beneath him this past year, the boundaries of his California district upended by the nation's partisan redistricting war.
A public showdown between the Trump administration and Anthropic is hitting an impasse as military officials demand the artificial intelligence company bend its ethical policies by Friday or risk damaging its business.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- American sympathies in the Middle East have shifted dramatically toward the Palestinians, according to new Gallup polling, after decades of overwhelming support for the Israelis.
'Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.' As the United States and Israel launched a major assault on Iran, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office said on Saturday that Canada supports the attempt to stop Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon and urged Canadians in the country to shelter in place. “Canada supports the United...
The U.S. and Israel launched an attack Saturday on Iran, with the first apparent strike happening near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian media reported strikes nationwide, and smoke could be seen rising from the capital. U.S. President Donald Trump said in a video posted on social media that the U.S. had begun “major combat operations in...
President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. is in talks with Havana and raised the possibility of a "friendly takeover of Cuba" without offering any details on what he meant. Speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for a trip to Texas, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in discussions with Cuban leaders "at...
Canada is sending $8 million in food aid to people in Cuba, where a U.S. oil blockade has triggered a humanitarian crisis. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and MP Randeep Sarai, secretary of state for international development, say the funding is aimed at addressing urgent needs. The funding will be delivered through United Nations agencies instead of the Cuban government.
With the appointment of former top bureaucrat Janice Charette, Prime Minister Mark Carney has bucked tradition by picking a chief negotiator for Canada-United States trade who doesn’t have an abundance of trade experience. In the past, chief trade negotiators have had extensive experience with the technical side of trade policy, having served in Global Affairs Canada’s (GAC) trade policy bureau...
Rather than sorting applicants by racial category, universities should focus on ensuring that all prospective students, regardless of race, have the academic preparation needed to compete fairly.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has finally revealed his plan to turn Canada into a weapons-exporting global mega-power. “In total, the Defence Industrial Strategy is an investment of over half a trillion dollars in Canadian security, economic prosperity, and our sovereignty,” he announced this week, promising to create over 125 thousand “high-paying careers” building weapons and otherwise supplying the Canadian military...
Cuba has been plunged into darkness. Schools, hospitals and essential services are hit by rolling 12-hour blackouts. Foreigners, including Canadians, have fled. Even worse, infant mortality is climbing.
Lisa Banfield, common-law wife of the man who meticulously slaughtered 22 people six years ago, recently published a memoir of her life-on-eggshells with a controlling killer.
Two leaders, two visions, two itineraries. Prime Minister Mark Carney is once again travelling abroad to strengthen Canada's trading relationships with fellow middle powers like India, Japan and Australia. How much sway does Canada hold in this new geopolitical era? Anne-Marie Slaughter, former Obama-era senior U.S. State Department director, joins The House to weigh in on this middle-power moment. And...
Pierre Poilievre is getting generally pretty good reviews for his major speech yesterday outlining his vision for Canada-U.S. relations. Before a pretty Conservative business audience in Toronto, he also went after Donald Trump -- something he hasn't done in the past with so much vigour. It wasn't just what he said but the way he said it. Chantal Hebert and...
Peter Mazereeuw interviews Valeriy Kostyuk, the executive director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, about his work raising donations and sending everything from power generators to surgical teams into Ukraine as it tries to fight off the Russian invasion.
As Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand travels with Prime Minister Mark Carney to India, a feature conversation with Anand on the reset of the Canada-India relationship, the U.S. military build-up near Iran, CUSMA negotiations, and Canada’s foreign policy doctrine in a tense geopolitical moment.
